The Witcher 3 - any opinions or insight?

I think i'll start it tonight. Normally when I play something like this, I wont touch anything else for a while, but I got terrible schedule for that right now I'll still give it a start. Any tips for beginners? By no means gaming noob, just haven't played Witcher or any other games from the series. I read the lore shortcut article, and some other tips, but still your input is welcome

My best advice is to do secondary quests and contracts while their recommended level are around your own level. They'll show as green when you look at them. That way, you'll get a lot more XP for completing them. Also, don't progress through the main story while there are secondary quests related to it still open if you'd like to complete them. Once you do certain things in the main line, other options sometimes become impossible.

My best advice is to do secondary quests and contracts while their recommended level are around your own level. They'll show as green when you look at them. That way, you'll get a lot more XP for completing them. Also, don't progress through the main story while there are secondary quests related to it still open if you'd like to complete them. Once you do certain things in the main line, other options sometimes become impossible.

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Yup haha, just finished the Griffin kill mission, saw that I failed the Missing in Action quest and i went back. I am super OCD when it comes to side quests so i prolly wont leave WO until i visit all question marks

So far the game is perfect. Just challenging enough without being over the top, I am playing on Blood and Bones btw. Griffin went down in one shot, was an interesting battle tho. I am playing on PC and for the sake of me I can't figure out how do I lock on to a single target. Swinging wildly in combat is fine when it's 2-3 enemies, but I am sure the game will be less forgiving later on.

Also, all these master and magical items that I can sell or break down, do I hold on to them? Do I break them all down? Do i sell them all? As far as mats, I collect A LOT of flowers lol do I just keep stacking them or what?

Card game is interesting as well, played one guy (just the first one) took me a second to figure out. From what you've guys posted is bait out the good cards, basically, throw first round and go on and win?

As far as loot goes, I'd sell or break down all junk (the last catagory on the right) unless its listed as a quest item. You'll fill up towards your weight limit even when being careful, so carrying around needless stuff can hinder you. I wouldn't hold onto any armor that you can't wear, or is worse than what you have, as it tends to be heavy and you'll almost certainly find something better later too. I keep one of each type of sword as backup, because those tend to wear down faster, just in case.

At first, playing on default and realizing that food didn't have much of a purpose, I was selling everything that I found. However, I've realized that you need alcohol for various reasons, so I'd hang onto all of that. Worth the bit of extra weight. I basically keep all crafting materials, though a helpful hint is that you can have the blacksmiths break down monster parts, which will help you get certain ones you'll need for crafting.

Gwent takes a little time, but I enjoy it. The goal is to win 2/3 rounds, so any one round isnt all important. I don't ever plan to lose round one or two, but if it happens, its ok. The main goal, especially early, is to win one of them and then have more cards and/or higher cards than your opponent does in round 3. If your opponent throws a ton of cards onto the table and is crushing you early, no shame in letting him have it. The lesser players will often give themselves pyrrhic victories, cripling themselves for round 3. You'll learn what to watch for, and I can often goad them into throwing more or better cards when they don't need to.

Also, with Gwent, play everyone that you can. You can win at least one card from every opponent. If the option to play them is yellow in the menu, that means you can win a "unique" card. Play them until you beat them or at least come back to them before moving the main story along. A few of them you only have one chance, and whats worse, in the Gwent missions, if you miss your chance with one player, you don't get to challenge the ones after them on the list either. I unfortunately opened up a Gwent mission after I'd already completed the secondary mission involving one of my opponents, and I don't know that I'll ever see them again. Bad timing.

So i'm level 5-6. Biggest challenge for me is not the monster contracts/wraiths, those are usually go down in 1/2 attempts. Facing a group of 5-8 enemies of my own level is what gives me trouble, funny enough.

Playing Gwent with everybody i see, kiiinda getting a hang of it. The Noble Guy as the Emperor's castle took me like an 30 mins to beat, holy RNG. He had so many 10 stat cards. I like the fact that second map is a lot bigger, and there are SO MANY THINGS to do. Walked in to a Cave, triggered a lvl 30 Witcher Contract, walker right out I like the fact that the game doesn't block you from taking contracts and such no matter how high the recommended level is. If you wanna go waste your time, go at it lol I'm at a point where im stacking up enough secondary quests where I try to do the smallest recommended lvl, so i wouldnt outgrow them and lose out on XP

Early on, groups of enemies were my trouble spot too. Groups of bandits even a lower level than me would kill me easily. It gets much better as you get better equipment. Today, at level 25, I went through a group of about 40 pirates who were around level 15. On the other hand, a group of only 3 Level 30 wraiths came within a sliver of my life of killing me, as did the level 30 boss in the same zone.

Early on, groups of enemies were my trouble spot too. Groups of bandits even a lower level than me would kill me easily. It gets much better as you get better equipment. Today, at level 25, I went through a group of about 40 pirates who were around level 15. On the other hand, a group of only 3 Level 30 wraiths came within a sliver of my life of killing me, as did the level 30 boss in the same zone.

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I think what was hurting me is that I was holding out on upgrading my silver sword. There is a recipe you get in WO for a poison esque silver sword, I upgraded my steel one, but not my silver one, I needed emerald powder. Some of the wraiths had a chance of dropping them, so I held out, as the store keepers were asking something like 540 for it, big amount for me at the time, about half my money. So i cleared WO completely, did few quests in next area, still no luck. At this point i was sitting on about 3k (i pick up EVERYTHING lol) so i broke down and bought it, also upgraded my bolts so I think I will be wrecking for a little bit now Found a full witcher set recipe, but thats for level 27

I maxed my jedi mind trick ability and my fast attack ability, now I think I will max igni next.

Jedi mind trick is sweet. 40xp every time, all game. It helps in many ways. Bolts....eh. I didn't start using them much until recently. Great for being underwater, and helpful when you eventually fight smaller flying enemies. Not much use otherwise. You'll gradually come across better crossbows as loot. I wouldn't waste money on any. Both swords and armor, and don't be afraid, when you get some with upgrade slots, to use them.

Jedi mind trick is sweet. 40xp every time, all game. It helps in many ways. Bolts....eh. I didn't start using them much until recently. Great for being underwater, and helpful when you eventually fight smaller flying enemies. Not much use otherwise. You'll gradually come across better crossbows as loot. I wouldn't waste money on any. Both swords and armor, and don't be afraid, when you get some with upgrade slots, to use them.

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it didnt cost me much because I had all the mats, so i figured why not. I got 40, I barely used them, I figured will be useful in a pinch.

So what'd you guys do with Keira? I'll throw a spoiler tag on it to be safe.

What I like about this game is that it doesn't give indications of what kind of response you will get out of people, like Fallout or Skyrim does.

After confronting her at the tower, I chose to call her out for playing me and then called her two faced or something like that, then i told her I need those notes, ended up fighting and killer her, which surprised me. I imagined that it would just stop fight at 1 hp. So i googled it, saw that it's not the only possible outcome and sent her to the Witcher Castle without those notes. Funny thing is, I never do this kinda thing, usually stick with my decisions, also considering that I doubt I'll see this NPC again, but because I know that i didn't mean to kill her, I decided to keep my alternate ending What'd you guys do?

I helped her get what she wanted and did the missions, and then I argued with her a little, but it was mainly talking her out of doing something stupid and getting herself killed. In the end, she agreed, and said she was going to Kaer Morhen. However, that was quite a while ago, even in days within the game, and I just got to Kaer Morhen myself and she doesn't seem to be there, but nor do the other two I sent, so we'll see.

In my experience, you get a Gwent card from most people that you beat, but not every single one. Some cards will be total crap, but thats to be expected. After you win a card, you always still get stuff from them after that too.

So i'm only level 8, but I know I will be overleveled for the main story line When i do quests, any quests, I rarely fast travel, and I try to hit every question mark on the map on my way there, hence my slow progression in quests but rapid clearing of the marked event haha I'm so OCD when it comes to these types of games

What I also love is that in caves, or treasure hunt missions there are many places where you can go, and as anybody who's played video games for a while I always go where im not supposed to go first, to clear out those chests! And fight gargoyles and golems while at it. I love that they implemented that.

I'm also loving the Blood and Bones difficulty, challenging to the point where losing a fight few times makes you think "I can ****ing beat this guy" instead of "Oh man, **** this guy"

I play with a mouse and keyboard, and do just fine. However might opinion might be a bit biased because I am #PCMasterRacer all the way haha, if you truly don't care, try both. Whatever will suit you better, I do think that you will find controls a tad clanky in the beginning of the game, my guess is that it was designed for a controller, but after a bit of playing you will be fine.

Ran in to first Witcher Contract that gave me trouble - Jenny O'The Woods. Crazy part she was level 9, i was 11 and i just took out a lvl 12 Witcher contract with no problems. But man, she was a pain in the *** haha

In the end, I helped him and his daughter get his wife back, but she was completely mentally gone. I was given the option of suggesting that there may or may not be hope for her, and chose the realistic option that there wasn't. The Baron told me off, said he was taking her somewhere to a healer, and that's the last I've seen of him, her, or their daughter.

Ran in to first Witcher Contract that gave me trouble - Jenny O'The Woods. Crazy part she was level 9, i was 11 and i just took out a lvl 12 Witcher contract with no problems. But man, she was a pain in the *** haha

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Jenny is probably the most notorious contract on the boards I've talked about. Crazy hard for the level that it suggests. Everyone hates it. I tried multiple times before finally finishing it around level 20. At that point, of course, no XP gained.

In the end, I helped him and his daughter get his wife back, but she was completely mentally gone. I was given the option of suggesting that there may or may not be hope for her, and chose the realistic option that there wasn't. The Baron told me off, said he was taking her somewhere to a healer, and that's the last I've seen of him, her, or their daughter.

Jenny is probably the most notorious contract on the boards I've talked about. Crazy hard for the level that it suggests. Everyone hates it. I tried multiple times before finally finishing it around level 20. At that point, of course, no XP gained.

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I kinda cheesed it. If you got sit in a cluster of trees, its easier to dodge her attacks and easier to trap her in the trap. Worked out. I'm too damn stubborn for my own good

Also kinda stopped playing for a bit, burned out after 50 hours in less than 2 weeks lol

I kinda cheesed it. If you got sit in a cluster of trees, its easier to dodge her attacks and easier to trap her in the trap. Worked out. I'm too damn stubborn for my own good

Also kinda stopped playing for a bit, burned out after 50 hours in less than 2 weeks lol

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I was on vacation out of state from last Tuesday morning through Sunday night, so I took my time off and am now back at it. I'd played a few hours almost every day since release day before that.

Completed a few smaller quests, but want to level up so I can wear my new better armor before taking on a bigger one. Spent two hours roaming around question marks on the map and am 7 freeking points shy now, lol. But its late and I need to head to bed. I'll just kill a bunch of damn drowners if I have to!

Completed a few smaller quests, but want to level up so I can wear my new better armor before taking on a bigger one. Spent two hours roaming around question marks on the map and am 7 freeking points shy now, lol. But its late and I need to head to bed. I'll just kill a bunch of damn drowners if I have to!

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i actually just hit 14, collected all and crafted all Feline armor, so super happy about that.
There are just SO MANY GOD DAMNG THINGS TO DO, and I hate leaving things unfinished with my video game OCD so its terrible for me

i actually just hit 14, collected all and crafted all Feline armor, so super happy about that.
There are just SO MANY GOD DAMNG THINGS TO DO, and I hate leaving things unfinished with my video game OCD so its terrible for me

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I'm at level 26, and last night was able to buy a few "new" diagrams for level 45 armor. With diminishing returns on XP though, I'm worried that I won't ever get there. Last night, I got 50xp for completing a level 26 quest that involved killing a level 33 monster. Miss the early days of the game when I was getting 500xp a clip. The confusing part for me is that people kept saying that you level up quicker later on....and that never happened for me, unless I have a lot more of the main story left than I think I do.

Well, to update my previous post, I seem to have gotten into that point in the game where the XP comes more quickly. Once I got to a large, important point in the story, and followed a certain path for a while, I leveled up four times in short order by the time I got back to the open world aspect. Went from 28 to 32 in rapid fire, and can now craft and wear the highest level Witcher Gear that I have scematics for. I'm also hoping that I've now unlocked some more side missions. Gave up the trousers I was wearing that added +350 to my vitality in order to wear ones that added +21 to my armor. Hopefully a good choice. Crafted and using both of the highest end Feline swords too.

Really, really good cinema aspects of the game too. The work they did is really impressive. Rivals high end Hollywood animated movies, IMO. The motion capture and face work with Ciri is specifically impressive. I think that she's the most lifelike video game character I've ever seen.

Finished the story. Really, really pleased with the game, and also with the ending that I got (there are apparently over 30 different ones). I actually was emotionally moved, and felt that the choices I made and the time that I put into it made a real difference. I wish that the PS4 version of the game tracked playtime properly, because I'm curious as to how much time I spent on it. Played for almost two months exactly, and never once was just wasting time. I'll likely put the game up now for a while, and not do a second playthrough until at least the first big DLC pack comes out in October.

I'm not currently playing the game, but I'm still keeping up with it, and update 1.08 should be dropping soon, as well as the New Game Plus feature. I wasn't going to start a new playthrough until the big DLC dropped, but I may tool around with NG+ to check it out.

Good article on the expansion packs for the game. I'm not sure where and when I'll fit it in, but after the second one is released this fall, I plan on downloading them both (along with all of the other updates I've missed along the way) and replaying the game. It looks really awesome, and I have zero reason to doubt DC Projekt Red will do an awesome job and make it worth our while.

So you haven't played Hearts of Stone? I'm borrowing the game from a friend - been playing 2 months and still have a ways to go. but I may have to give it back, so DLC - not sure if that's an option or not if I don't have the disc.

So you haven't played Hearts of Stone? I'm borrowing the game from a friend - been playing 2 months and still have a ways to go. but I may have to give it back, so DLC - not sure if that's an option or not if I don't have the disc.

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No, I haven't. My first playthrough may have been the largest amount of time I've ever put into a game (no way to be certain, since the tracking on the PS4 is broken), and though I plan to do another one, I'm gonna wait until everything is out. With both expansions and the NG+, I'm hoping/thinking it'll be an almost new experience.

And I would think that unless you download the game, you'll need the disc to play any part of it. My original playthrough took me almost exactly two months, playing several hours almost every day. I figure somewhere between 150-200 hours. The expansions are said to add 30+ more to that.

20 hours in a DLC is pretty damn good. That's longer than most full games these days.

Also: when did the sandbox genre become the king of game length?

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not sure if that's a serious question but daggerfall and oblivion stole 500 plus hours each from me and the fallout series easily tops 1k. I would guess MMOs are higher but they don't belong in comparison with single player games.

Sandbox games have been time sinks for a long time. I put HUGE amounts of time even just screwing around in Vice City and San Andreas back in the day. Now that we have RPG+Sandbox games, its the perfect storm for that. For me, that started with Skyrim.